Every year, more Australians are injured at work than on our roads.Yet we rarely talk about what happens afterwards.
Beginning in Lithgow, where a family tragedy sparked a search for answers, Shattered travels across Australia exploring the human consequences of workplace injury.
Through compelling conversations with injured workers, families, employers, doctors, lawyers and community members, the series reveals how a single injury can reshape lives, relationships and futures. Their stories offer profoundly human accounts of grief, loss, resilience and the long journey that often follows.
Filmed over three years, Shattered combines lived experience, social history and expert insight to explore the systems, institutions and decisions that shape that journey.
At its heart, Shattered asks a simple question: What happens afterwards?
Host a Screening | Upcoming Community Screenings
Available from August 2026
Location | Event | Ticket | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
Sydney | Community Screening | Private Event | 03/08/2026 |
Canberra | Community Screening | Available | 16/08/2026 |
Albury/Wodonga | Workplace Screening | Private Event | 19/08/2026 |
Lithgow | Community Screening | Available | 25/08/2026 |
Screenings are being developed for workplaces, universities, healthcare settings, faith communities and local groups.
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Reflect
Use guided questions to explore how injury affects people, families and communities — and what care requires.
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Respond
Host conversations that strengthen understanding, connection and support when people need it most.
Why We Made Shattered?
A workplace injury changes lives. Sometimes a workplace tragedy changes generations.
Every year at Windy Gully, the community of Mt Kembla gathers to remember the 96 men and boys who never came home from work.
More than 120 years later, their loss is still felt.
Shattered explores what happens after injury, and how its consequences can ripple through families, communities and generations.
Episode 1 - Origins of Control
Workplace injury has always carried a human and family cost.
In towns like Lithgow, where coal mines, railways and steelworks powered a young nation, families and communities often carried that burden together.
Episode One explores how Australia's response to workplace injury evolved over time. As systems become more complex, what happens to care?
01
Environmental Analysis
Examine wider community and identify audiences and assumptions playing into existing narrative. Fact Check. Is it true?
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Strategic Storytelling
Facts tell, stories sell. As necessary correct the backstory with facts, evidence and stories.
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Show New Story
People are wired for stories. Use memes, images, metaphors and channels of communication that resonate with audience. Keep it human and authentic.
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Journey With New Story
It takes time to change a dysfunctional story. Stay the course. Measure and adjust. Build collaborative partnerships of care to embed new story.
Our Framework
We are currently fact checking a number of ambiguous and inconsistent issues that we have identified across other platforms to clarify. Accordingly, this website will be updated on a regular basis so please check back. If you have information that you would like us to consider, please use the contact page and we will be in touch. We appreciate your time.
Evidence-Informed. Non-Partisan.
Shattered is an independent documentary grounded in social history, parliamentary material, and regulatory records.
It is not aligned with any political party or institution.
Its purpose is clarity — and to help people better understand what happens after workplace injury.
#shattereddoco
Episode 1 - 100 Years On
A century after the first protections were introduced, the experience of workplace injury has become increasingly complex. Policies, processes, technology and administration now influence how people access support and navigate recovery.
For families, it can feel bewildering.
For employers, uncertain.
For injured people, overwhelming.
Shattered asks whether today's systems are helping people recover — or making that journey harder.
